Ultra Q, Courtesy: Andrew Diaz. Some bands can get by on streaming royalties for a while in the event of a catastrophic pandemic, but Oakland’s Ultra Q is not a “streaming band,” frontman and bandleader Jakob Armstrong said. Brothers Enzo and Chris Malaspina, Kevin Judd and Armstrong, the youngest son…

Max Becker of SWMRS performs at Live 105’s BFD 2017 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on June 10, 2017. Alessio Neri/STAFF. SWMRS’ Max Becker doesn’t remember undoing his seatbelt, but obviously he did on the fateful drive from Oakland to Denver, where the band was set to begin…

Max Becker of SWMRS photographed at BottleRock Napa Valley in Napa on May 28, 2017. Several members of East Bay rock band SWMRS and its crew were injured—several of them seriously—after the van they were in slid on black ice with the band en-route from the Bay Area to…

The fourth album from Oakland’s SWMRS, Berkeley’s on Fire, has a clear intent to avoid categorization. Compared to previous albums like 2016’s Drive North—an album characterized by sugary pop-punk vocals and formulaic lyrical narratives—Berkeley’s on Fire is a welcomed departure. While Drive North strove to synthesize the band’s sound with a…

SWMRS perform at the UC Theatre in Berkeley on Oct. 27, 2018. Photos: Chloe Catajan. BERKELEY — With Halloween around the corner, SWMRS started the scream fest early at the UC Theatre Saturday. For its third annual Uncool Halloween, the Oakland band channeled the Harry Potter series. “Hedwig’s Theme”…

Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms such as Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but who has time to sort through all that? RIFF does! We pooled our resources to find some…

Photo: Jay Demetillo Welcome, once again, to my annual countdown of my most entertaining music experiences of the year. I attended 54 concerts this year, up from 51 last year and 41 the year before. In compiling this list, I’m not trying to scientifically list the best or most technically proficient…

  Not many bands would pass up multiple opportunities to open for Green Day, but Oakland’s SWMRS had a reason: nepotism. Because the pop-punk band’s drummer, Joey Armstrong, is the son of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong, SWMRS had felt that others were judging them as getting a hand…

Photos: Alessio Neri MOUNTAIN VIEW — Thomas Mars and Phoenix brought their traveling Italian disco show to radio station Live 105’s BFD festival at the Shoreline Amphitheatre Saturday. The Parisians, the final of 25 acts to perform at the annual radio station start of summer show, played three songs off…

Foo Fighters perform at BottleRock Napa Valley 2017. Alessio Neri/STAFF. NAPA — In the end, the only thing that could stop the Foo Fighters at BottleRock Napa was a strict 10 p.m. curfew. The rock band that headlined the final night of the fifth annual festival was about a…